Mira did not open the door directly. Except for the storage compartment, the doors on the ship basically only had door bolts on the inside. This was specially designed to prevent passengers from being accidentally locked in the house and unable to escape when the ship sank in an accident. The girl put her hand on the door bolt. while holding the dagger in the other hand, and then put his ear against the wooden door.
At this moment, most of the more than 100 people on the ship were sleeping. Only the shift crew who had rested in advance in the evening were still maintaining the basic course. The cabin for female passengers is located at the rear of the hull, close to the storage compartment. There are some stairs separated from the general passenger cabin, which provides a certain degree of privacy and isolation.
The room Mira and the two were assigned were not big. In fact, except for the captain's room on the top floor, which was slightly larger, the rest of the passenger rooms on the ship could only hold a bunk bed and a cabinet. degree. The sailors' quarters were worse in comparison. Not only did they sleep in hammocks, but there were also three or four people crammed into the space, which was only slightly larger than the passenger quarters.
These are designed to save space. As a large ocean-going merchant ship, the Oriental Moon's crew of about a hundred people is actually the limit. Because there are many factors that need to be taken into consideration, although the cost is more expensive, her carrying capacity is not as large as that of the calm inland seas or even those transport cruise ships on the rivers.
The narrow rectangular room was sandwiched between the stairs and the storage compartment at the back, with only the porthole behind it letting in some light. But tonight is also a moonless night, and the outlines of indoor objects can only be barely discernible by the light of the stars alone.
The two people who hurriedly got out of bed were only wearing warm pajamas. Their bare feet felt quite cold when they stepped on the wooden floor. After a while, they felt a slight tingling sensation on their toes.
But Mira endured this and listened carefully to what was going on outside.
Quiet.
This may not be the right word to describe a ship that breaks through the waves and pushes forward, because the waves are lapping and the subtle sounds of various wooden tools and metal parts connecting them are constant.
But these are inorganic sounds, just like the sound of wind, just a part of natural repetition.
There was no chirping of birds or insects; no people could be heard walking back and forth, no conversation or laughter could be heard.
Although late at night on land is often relatively quiet, at least some subtle sounds are still present. People always say they want peace and quiet when sleeping, but in fact, if you have become accustomed to being surrounded by various subtle sounds throughout your life, when you fall into complete silence, you will feel uneasy and unable to fall asleep.
There was no sound, a fact that Mira could easily discern due to the extreme silence.
She began to wonder if the young scholar was so uneasy that she mistook certain sounds made by the ship's hull as human footsteps.
The white-haired girl turned around and looked at her roommate.
"No, there is really someone." The helpless Lisa lowered her voice and explained. Although the night was very dark and she couldn't see clearly the expression of the Luoan girl, from this silence, she was smart enough to guess something. .
"..." The Luoan girl thought for a while. In order to reassure the other party and to verify the truth, she nodded and said, "Get ready to light the lantern and go out to take a look."
After about ten minutes, Lisa put on all the warm clothes, socks and shoes in the dark to ensure that she was wrapped tightly and warm, and then Lisa took out the charcoal strips that were simmering in the pottery bowl. She blew it to make dark red sparks fly in the air, then opened the small door of the wooden lantern and brought the carbon strip close to the flammable candle wick. But due to the low temperature, the wax on the candle wick that had been blown out more than 20 minutes ago had solidified, and it took a while for the temperature emitted by the carbon strips to melt them again and ignite them.
"Huh--" The freckled face of the re-illuminated scholar lady was a little nervous. She closed the small door of the lantern and then rubbed her hands and leaned close to the heat source to absorb the slightest warmth. Then he huffed and turned his head to look at the Luoan girl who had put her hand on the door bolt - the latter nodded, then opened the door bolt by a small margin, and then slowly opened it. Door, looking out from the crack of the door.
"Whoosh--" A bit of cold wind immediately poured in from the crack of the open door, causing Mira's hair to flutter and tremble as she stood in front of the door. The lantern that Lisa had just picked up behind her also started to stir. Subtle swaying - the Luoan girl immediately noticed something abnormal. The passenger living area on this floor is somewhat like a U-shape. The end of the upper edge is the exit to the deck, and the room where the two of them are located is located On the lower left and innermost center is the storage room, and directly in front of the storage room is the corridor leading to the upper and lower floors.
Except for the slowest sailing downwind, sea breeze usually flows in from one end of the U-shape and then flows out from the other side. So she had expected that it would be colder when she opened the door and left the small cabin. But the speed of air flow was a bit too strong. This was obviously because the door to the deck was opened by someone.
"Really!" Lisa was a little relieved at first because her inner thoughts were verified to be not her hallucinations, but then she became even more nervous because of this reason: "What, what should I do? Do we really want to go out to see it? We It should be fine if the door is locked." She seemed at a loss. This young scholar was a member of an entire group of imperial scholars on the ship. Their trip was longer than the point-to-point arrival of Mira and the three of them. It was with Mira. Captain Francisco was contracted to remain with the ship for long periods of observation.
Scholars are mostly not good at interacting with others. They are better at studying something with concentration. In the field in which they are good at, they may argue with their peers to the point of leaving outsiders stunned, but compared to a profession like mercenaries, which requires calmness and calmness after experiencing many things, most scholars will become helpless when facing things outside their comfort zone. Hesitant to move forward with fear.
Lisa is obviously also a typical scholar, so it is reasonable for her to start to feel uneasy when she actually does what she proposed.
Mira didn't quite know how to make her feel at ease. Because of her career, she had been surrounded by various impulsive men for a long time. They were not even mercenaries or soldiers. People like Galeva were also recruited by others. She spent more time yelling and cursing to stop.
Even if you meet the same female beings, because of the different levels of contact, characters like Emonica, the two princesses, Minna, Miss Margaret, and Horno are basically all temperamental. An extraordinary being who is extremely strong.
If these women encountered a similar situation, they would act calmly and decisively no less than herself.
Because the surrounding circle has always been composed of such people, ordinary people like Lisa, her roommate on this trip, have the worries that ordinary girls should have; people who have the worries of ordinary girls are somewhat new to her. .
When she didn't know how to make a decision, she first thought of her teacher. Looking at the dagger in her hand, the girl walked to her bed and took out a small shield from under the bed, handing it to Lisa.
"Ah——" Miss Scholar took it and looked at the Luoan girl blankly.
"Hold it this way, with the shield in front, so you can protect it. Then change the grip and use the edge." Mira held the other small shield and demonstrated it to her step by step: "Whoops -"
"The force you exert will be greater than you think." She said this and looked at the other party.
"Yeah." Lisa took a deep breath, then held the small shield tightly against her abdomen.
"I feel more at ease." She said, and Miss Scholar nodded.
The power of words is sometimes strong and sometimes weak. At this juncture, things that are visible and tangible can help people take that crucial step - the two walked out of the room, and in the dim corridor, there were people outside the range of the lantern. Everywhere is dark.
"It's so cold." The candle was still being blown around through the glass. When they walked outside the cabin, the cold night wind blew directly at them. The two of them immediately felt a little pain on their exposed skin.
"Be careful, there is frost on the ground." The swaying firelight reflected on the ground, and the alert Luoan girl immediately noticed those white parts - it was the water vapor brought by the sea breeze that formed in the cold winter of frost. This is why the door to the deck must be closed when sleeping at night. If there is frost on the deck, it will melt in the sun during the day. If this happens in the corridor, you will have to use a wooden shovel and a pig-hair brush to deal with it. .
"Be careful not to slip." Mira reminded Lisa before she noticed the situation on the ground. As soon as she left the room, she looked quite cautious, and the hand holding the small shield tightly clamped her armpit. This posture was wrong for using a small shield, but the Luoan girl knew that this was not the right time to point her out.
She maintained a vigilant posture, holding a shield in one hand and a dagger in the other to protect Lisa's side and front.
The walkway is not high. In fact, except for the storage compartment near the rudder, which is relatively high, most parts are only about two meters. On the one hand, because this is a ship made by the Southern Territory, they are generally shorter in height. On the other hand, it also has a lot to do with the use of space. Crew members of Suomir descent often need to bend down when passing through the hatch, which is only 1.8 meters high.
The low ceiling and the aisle that was only two people wide made it necessary for the two of them to keep a good direction so as not to cause the light of the candle to be blocked by Mira in front. Coupled with the need to be careful about the slippery floor, it can be said that just walking is very difficult.
"It looks like there's nothing here." "Click--" The Luoan girl closed the hatch again, and the two of them immediately felt much more comfortable without the cold wind blowing. Although there are some passages leading to the upper and lower floors on both sides of the corridor here, they are basically straight and there is no place to hide, so after walking over, they have confirmed that there is no movement here.
"Go back, maybe hide over there in the storage cabin." The girl Luo An said this, and Lisa nodded. She felt relieved that she didn't find anything, so she became a lot more courageous. .
The two walked against the wall to avoid slipping, but after walking to the storage compartment, they checked carefully but found nothing. Except for a few mice picking up some scraps of food and munching them, and disappeared without a trace with a "whoosh" when the two came over, there was no bigger movement.
They carefully spent a long time walking to the door on the other side. The door on this side was also ajar, and the deck outside under the faint starlight was freezing cold.
"Did you go outside? Maybe the sailor on night duty came down to get something and forgot to close the door." The girl Luo An said this, holding the small shield under her arm and leaving a free hand to lock the door.
"Mira, footprints! Footprints!" But at this moment, Lisa suddenly stopped her. Miss Scholar put the lantern over, and Mira immediately saw a footprint with five distinct fingers on the ground. It was obvious that someone was standing here. After a while, his body temperature melted the frost on the ground.
And judging from the degree of re-condensation above, this person probably left just now - maybe it was because the arrival of the two of them scared each other away.
But the footprints are - bare feet?
Barefoot in this weather? No, the size of this footprint——
"Get away -" Mira pushed Lisa to sit back, then pushed open the hatch and rushed outside.
In an instant, the weak clouds in the sky cast pure white moonlight, and the Luoan girl held a sword in one hand and a shield in one hand, looking at her petite opponent wearing folk-style clothes under the moonlight.
The man was standing barefoot on the deck as if he was not aware of the cold. He was holding a short knife in his hand. He avoided her sudden push of the door and was standing guard on the other side while keeping distance. .
'When did you get involved? The Luoan girl had such doubts. This was obviously not a crew member on the ship, but the moment she was distracted also gave the other party a chance.
"Bah!" The little barefoot intruder rushed into the darkness under the main sail in an instant.
"So fast!" Mira chased after her, but the frost-covered deck made it impossible for her to stand firm, and she stumbled and slipped to the ground.
